LifeLine
by Vampy
Summary: A cornered ayakashi will make desperate moves. This one opens a portal to escape. What will Tokine and Yoshimori do when the portal becomes unstable? Warning: I should probably add a warning of some sorts... :/


**LIFE-LINE**

**AN:** Ah, found this old story on my computer and decided to finish and post it. ^^

**Summary:** A cornered ayakashi will make desperate moves. This one opens a portal to escape. What will Tokine and Yoshimori do when the portal becomes unstable? I should probably add a warning of some sorts...

**Term explanations:**

**Kekkaishi** are barrier masters who can form **kekkai** (cube like barriers) to capture **Ayakashi **(demons). **Shikigami** are the kekkaishi's paper helpers. **Karasumori** is the land that the kekkaishi must protect from invading ayakashi.  
**Hoi**, Engulfs a target. **Joso**, forms the cornerstones of a kekkai. **Ketsu**, Binds a target within a kekkai. **Kai **, releases the kekkai. **Metsu**, destroys the inside of a kekkai. **Nenshi**, an energy thread. **Tenketsu**, a heavenly hole that sucks up the remains of defeated Ayakashi. **Zekkai**, an absolute boundary that harms or repels.** Shuufuku**, a restoration art. **Sekkai**, cancels foreign kekkai.

Tokine and Yoshimori are kekkaishi's ofcourse, now let's begin!

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"Ha! We have it cornered now Tokine!" The boy kekkaishi shouted.

The ayakashi was big and green, one big eye in the centre of its body. Its attacks were wind based and strong but the ayakashi itself was weak and slow, though it had managed to stay out of the clutches of the two resident kekkaishi so far.  
Now however it was driven into a corner when the girl suddenly appeared from the other side. The ayakashi blew a razor-sharp blast at her, but she quickly formed a protective barrier around herself to render it useless.  
The boy was almost near enough to kill him now and the girl released her kekkai to form an attack of her own. There was nowhere for the Ayakashi to run.

So it did the only thing it could do besides attack, which was create a portal back to its home realm and flee.

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Yoshimori and Tokine were stumped... not only had their "prey" escaped, which almost never happened. But it had left a monstrous portal in the middle of Karasumori. That would have been tough to get rid off on its own. However that wasn't all. The portal was throwing up a storm of epic proportions!  
The two kekkaishi were staring at it from a safe distance though the wind was still extremely strong and toying with their hair and clothes. Their two demon dogs had it even harder as their astral bodies were at the mercy of the winds as they whirled around the portal in wide circles.

"What the hell is that?"  
Tokine rolled her eyes, but she got his sentiment. "Well at least nothing has come out of it yet. But we better close it off quick!"

"Yes, marvellous plan, Honey." Hakuby shouted as he momentarily whirled past the kekkaishi's location.  
"And how do we do that?" Yoshimori frowned. "We can't even get close to it."  
"This isn't the time to suddenly become cautious! Just charge in and close it already!" Madarao's screams faded in and out as he too was swept close enough on their location to hear.  
Yoshimori turned to glare at his stupid companion but the dog was already whisked away. He wasn't worried about their wellbeing though. In worst case scenario they would respawn at their resting stone in their dog-houses.  
Tokine grabbed his shoulder as she pointed high above the portal. "We should go from above! Maybe it's like a hurricane and has a centre of calm."

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Tokine placed her feet to the side of the Kekkai, making sure she would have leverage to lower Yoshimori down.

They had argued a bit about who would be the one to be lowered down, but Yoshimori had refused to put her in any kind of danger. And dangling above a portal on a tiny nenshi rope was included.  
Tokine had accepted it as she wasn't sure she'd be able to metsu the huge gate. She also wasn't entirely sure if she was lighter than him since she was older and taller than him.

So there she was, slowly lengthening her nenshi to lower Yoshimori down to the portal. She noticed that it was difficult to lengthen the nenshi with the portal trying to suck everything into it. In fact the lower Yoshimori got the harder it got. Sweat drops were appearing on her face.

Yoshimori could barely do anything other than holding on. The winds were hurling around him twisting and howling. He glanced down making out the contours of the portal, it wasn't hard to see where it was since everything was moving around the centre of it. He was still out of reach to create a kekkai around. At least for one that wouldn't dissolve instantly or one that would stay too instable to Metsu it.  
He looked up, seeing Tokine struggling with the nenshi.

Tokine used her left sleeve to wipe the sweat from her forehead. Yoshimori would almost be within the right distance. If she could just keep this up they would make it.

A loud groan sounded from behind her and branches were suddenly flying by her kekkai. The trees of Karasumori were starting to give out to the strenuous winds of the portal. A huge branch suddenly got caught by the nenshi. The added weight pulled her off her feet and into a kekkai she had placed to prevent falling. However the nenshi was ruthlessly lengthened quite a bit by the extra strain before she managed to stop its decent. It was a feat on its own that she hadn't released the nenshi, but Tokine still saw this as failure. She had briefly lost control over her friends safety and quickly looked down to see if he was okay.

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Yoshimori saw only blackness. Just a few seconds before he had been wildly hustled around and had fallen quite a few feet below. But Tokine had managed to hold him.  
Now where was that damned hole? He looked around but his surroundings had changed even though he couldn't see much. He looked up. Tokine was pressed against the kekkai on her knees, eyes wide with fear. He realised instantly that he had fallen through the portal.

It took him a few seconds to gather his thoughts.  
There was no way Tokine would be able to pull him up, not with these wind and the portal becoming even more unstable. Let alone the debris, which he noticed, was becoming bigger and more dangerous.  
He also realised he was close enough to surround the portal now. It really was a no-brainer for him. He had to close the portal.  
To protect her.

It would be useless to wait or try something else… He raised his hand. Their eyes met for the last time. He could almost hear her screaming his name over the roaring sounds of the wind.

"Ketsu!" A kekkai appeared around the portal, he knew the kekkai would have instantly stopped the storm at Karasumori. A second later a thud made him aware that Tokine had released her kekkai and jumped onto his. She held the nenshi tightly in hand, pulling it with al her might. The kakkai however held the rope firmly in place. She realised the nenshi was useless so ignored it and started pounding on the kekkai that held the portal and showed Yoshimori on the other side.

He couldn't hear her, and knew she couldn't hear him. But he told her sorry anyway.

"Metsu!"

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**AN:** Gomen for the end. I actually had a different kind of ending in mind, but it just came out like that. XD Also: Yes the assumed warning would have been for character death ish-ness, however that gives away the whole plot. I hope you were generally warned though.

Let me know if you liked this story/pairing etc. Flames are more than welcome, I get chilly often (summer is non-existent here momentarily). So speak yer minds peoples! And **thanks** for reading! T.T Makes me happeh!

Got another short story coming soon for ya-all. It's called **"All That You Are"** and is a Genshi, Songfic, slightly M-rated with loads of fluf! Yay! So look out for that story if you're interested. ^^


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